Defense of the Statues
After returning from Shadow Absalom, Shadow left the group to spend time with his wife. Meanwhile, Hekrion and Airi got caught up in a mission from the Adventurer's Pact along with some new recruits. Dungeon Master Emerson Party Members *Airi *Hekrion *Neorthra *Reven *Solaire *Sora * Mission Goal Keep guard over a ship as it brings a large number of valuable statues to a museum in Sothis. Mission Summary After being assigned the mission, Hekrion and Airi both planned to get out of Absalom, through means not involved with Adventurer's Pact. Despite their planning to not board the ship, they somehow found themselves on-board, with the vessel already on the way to Sothis. As Hekrion started walking to his cabin, he found a mysterious coin on the ground, and soon found himself having visions. However, none of the visions made any sense, as they showed a statue moving around and smearing mold on other statues. After discovering that Hekrion had a curse place on him, Airi became steadfast in attempting to remove it. They tried several different methods to dispose of the curse, but it was ultimately of no use. The rest of the party were investigating the ship on their own. Neorthra, Solaire, and Reven all noticed that mysterious green flecks were in the air. Neorthra and Solaire both attempted to collect the flecks, with mixed success. While Solaire was able to collect several flakes in his hand, he found that it corroded through his armor. An announcement was made that a beautiful sunset could be seen from the bow of the ship. As the party gathered at the front of the ship, they discussed the green flecks, and Airi cast Detect Magic to see what was going on. The group was stunned to discover that the flecks were slowly causing petrification on those aboard, and ran to the captain to convince him to change course. Hekrion, trying to figure out the meaning of his visions, stealthily separated from the group and headed to the cargo hold. As he opened the door to sneak in, he saw a vision of Airi being run through and killed with a bronze sword. After the vision, he realized that the statues in the cargo hold of the ship were likely the statues he saw in his vision. For his sake and Airi's, he decided to hide and wait, just in case he would be able to catch the original statue. Meanwhile, the rest of the group tried to persuade the captain to chain course. However, the old man was stubborn, and refused to change course, saying that the green flecks were merely sea algae, and that he had sailed these seas for years without anything bad happening to him. No matter what the group did, the captain remained steadfast in his decision. In an attempt to make the cure, Neorthra worked through the night to collect more of the green flecks so that he would be able to create an antidote for the petrification that would affect the group. After leaving the captain, Airi noticed that Hekrion was missing, and used Detect Magic to try to locate the cursed coin he had on him. Seeing that he was in the cargo hold, she made her way down there as well. Reven, seeing Airi go into a forbidden place of the ship, followed after her, much to her annoyance. When they finally found Hekrion, he persuaded them to leave him alone, saying that they would have to trust him. As a guard appeared, Hekrion managed to keep hidden, and Airi and Reven were taken out of the cargo hold. Hekrion attempted to keep silent as he moved around the hold, but the guard, being suspicious of the area, cast a spell to envelope the entire room in bright light, leaving Hekrion exposed. Enraged, the guard grabbed Hekrion, and forced him through the wall with ethereal gloves and back onto the deck. Later in the night, the party was awoken by the sound of screaming coming from the cargo hold. Breaking in, the party found a living statue standing over the dead body of the guard. The party immediately started to fight it, but it managed to spread its mold over other statues, and soon the group had begun to be overrun. Just when they were about to be beaten, Airi smashed a statue, knocking a green pendant out and to the floor. As she picked it up, the entire room grew cold, and a tentacled being appeared from the shadows, demanding the pendant. However, his words in the language of Cthulu managed to drive Hekrion and Airi completely insane. Airi attempted to kepe the pendant for herself, angering the being to the point of grabbing her. This action resulted in the pedant cursing her Ring of Freedom of Movement to have the opposite effect, that she could not grab anything. The newly-cursed ring embedded itself beneath the flesh of her finger. Hekrion, in his insanity, made the grave mistake of insulting the being by making reference of the being's tentacles and saying, "I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going." Thoroughly angered, the being caused Hekrion's head to explode, before grabbing the pendant and leaving. As the party returned to the deck, they discovered the captain had been petrified in his quarters, and no one knew else knew how to navigate to Sothis. Fortunately, Airi managed to make sense of the charts, and navigated the crew to Sothis. Once they arrived in Sothis, she managed to convince the others to chip in to help ressurect Hekrion. Though they had to sell his most expensive possessions, he was resurrected, free of his insanity and the curse that the coin had on him. Follow-Up Quest Pyramid Investigation Category:Missions Category:Emerson Missions